This blog continues my effort to chronicle my writing life, my efforts to market my work, and now my life as co-owner of a small press. I use this blog to explore the thoughts, feelings, and very nature of being an author and a publisher. I am the author of 5 detective novels, 4 action thrillers and a marketing manual. I am also the editorial director of Intrigue Publishing. I am active in local writer’s organizations and co-founded the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity conference.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Today's guest blogger,
Kimberly “Kimba” J. Dalferes, is a native Floridian who pretends to be a
Virginian. Her accomplishments have included successfully threading a sewing
bobbin, landing a 35 pound Alaskan king salmon, and scoring a ceramic sangria
pitcher at an estate sale for $1. She also sometimes writes books. In fact, she allowed us to give you a sneak peek at her next book - The Magic Fishing Panties - right here! Her
humor column–Dock Tale Hour–is featured in Laker Magazine. Today, Kimba tells us how to write humor her way.

I know it when I
see it.

Justice Potter Stewart, famously defining
pornography

Good
humor writing is a lot like Justice Stewart’s porno. One gal’s laugh-fest is
another woman’s offensive screed. I know a good joke when I hear one and I know
a funny essay when I read it. However, sometimes it’s difficult to describe how to write good humor. But, here goes.

Key
elements of good humor writing are not that dissimilar from good writing in
general: show,
don’t tell. “The clown slipped on the
banana peel” is telling. More akin to showing would be: “JoJo, the sad-faced
clown, never saw the yellow castoff strip of peel lying limp in the middle of
the already wet pavement. In his haste to join his brethren in their tiny red
clown car, JoJo perilously ignored a key principle of the clown playbook:
slippery when wet.”

A well-written humorous story often evolves through three
distinct phases: the hook; the set-up; and the punchline.

The
Hook.

This statement–the hook– sets up the situation so the writer can now craft an engaging
story. An effective hook has the reader pondering: Why are the priest and the
rabbi together? What causes them to walk into a bar? What will happen to them
in the bar?

The Set-up. The set-up often centers on an awkward
situation, a ridiculous reaction, or a profound insight. In our example of our
friends the priest and the rabbi, perhaps they are debating the use of Viagra,
or why Viagra is blue, or how many Viagra pills it would take to screw in a
light bulb. The set-up describes the bar, the conversation, and the back story
leading up to the punchline.

The Punchline.
Every humorous story needs a punchline. This is the final element of the
narrative intended to make the reader laugh, snort, or giggle. The build-up to
the punchline can bring the reader along so that the story ending is obvious,
yet satisfying. Or, a punchline can be unexpected, catching the reader
off-guard and gleefully surprised.

One
last suggestion: consider the “rule of three.” Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears or the Three Little Pigs, most stories seem to flow better, and are
perceived as being funnier, when there are three discernible components. Taking
this to heart, our hook should probably be changed to: A priest, a rabbi, and Hillary Clinton walk into a bar.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Today’
guest blogger, Betsy Ashton, is the author of two Mad Max books, Mad Max
Unintended Consequences and the 2015 release, Uncharted Territory. In her spare
time, she is the president of The Virginia Writers Club. She stopped in to
share a bit about her relationship with her protagonist.

Thanks, Austin, for inviting me to yammer on about
how Mad Max and I came to an agreement on how she should be portrayed. Let me
begin by saying my Mad Max has nothing to do with the Mel Gibson character in
the Thunderdome series, or in any other Road Warrior series. She is a
fifty-something grandmother, smart, sexy, snarky and oh so wealthy. She also
has two of the most adorable grandchildren who held her solve crimes. Oh dear,
I’m getting ahead of myself.

When I began writing what became Mad Max Unintended Consequences, Maxine
“Mad Max” Davies was a minor character. The original story line focused on the
dissolution of a marriage, the idea prompted by real life, where a wife
descended into alcohol, drugs and infidelity, leaving a family in mourning.
Even I was bored with it. Max kept creeping in, asserting herself into the
story instead of remaining in the background as the mother of the alcoholic,
drug-addicted wife of the two adorable grandchildren. Through alternating chapters
wherein the couple told their stories in first person singular, a technique I
absolutely loved but which didn’t work, the story played out. It was so much
fun to write, so painful to read.

One night about three in the morning, I heard a very
clear voice shouting at me: “It’s my
story. Dammit, tell it my way.” Why, yes ma’am. And so, Mad Max was born.

I took the advice of a dear writer friend who read
the first fifty pages of the original and said, “Let Max be Max.” I did. As
soon as I focused on Max, I felt a story come to life. Admittedly, I wasn’t
excited about the amount of rewriting this shift in point of view entailed.
Like from sentence one to “the end.” Six drafts later, Max was a fully fleshed
out character with multiple secondary characters, including her adorable
grandchildren who helped her solve a crime.

I found an agent who loved Max as much as I do. She
suggested short synopses for two more books in the series, which she then sold
to Koehler Books, a small press in Virginia Beach. The thrill of writing a
series was almost as intense as discovering Max in the first place. She taught
me to listen to the voices in my head. I do, even to the newest one, a female
serial killer who may or may not be a psychopath.

Betsy
is a dedicated author and a staunch author advocate as well. You can learn more
about her and her writing at www.betsy-ashton.com

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Today’s guest blogger Deliah Lawrence is an attorney who enjoys
creative writing. Her debut novel, Gotta Let It Go, a
romantic-suspense novel set in Baltimore, won the 2011 Finalist Next Generation
Indie Book Award in the multi-cultural fiction category. She has now completed
her second novel, and shares some thoughts and feelings about that experience.

When I wrote my first
novel, Gotta Let It Go, a romantic-suspense novel set in Baltimore, I had no
intention of writing a sequel much less
a series. But after my family, fellow writer friends and fans started clamoring
for more, I thought, hmmm…why not? So, I
set off on generating ideas where my protagonist, a former burnt out prosecutor
would dive in head first against the warning of her detective lover to solve the
murder of a judge, someone very close to her. This sparked the genesis of the sequel titled,
Gotta Get It Back.

Well, life got in the
way and the story stayed dormant for a while… a very long while. The longer I
stayed away from the novel, the more I got pestered by folks, via phone calls,
text messages, emails, and social media asking, “When’s the new book coming
out?” “Aren’t you done yet?” “What’s your excuse this time?” and the list goes
on. Of course, I knew it was all done lovingly so that I could get back into the
creative writing seat and get it done. But it wasn’t easy.

Some days, the words
wouldn’t come flowing like I wanted to. I would get distracted, move onto
another project and create even more distance between myself and the storyline. However, it wasn’t until I decided that I
wanted to see my characters again that I became fully committed to finishing my
second novel.

Toward the exodus of my
novel, I learned a few lessons. First, I told myself that if the motivation for
the characters didn’t work, it was okay to start again. Second, I was forced to
see what really worked in the story and cut what didn’t. Third, I asked myself
the tough questions such as “What is this novel really about?” “Are the voices
consistent?” “Are the characters likeable?” “Is it all gelling?” This was all
in an effort to ensure I had something readers wanted to get their hands on.

Now that Gotta Get It
Back is finished, I look forward to the editing process and then getting it
published. In the meantime, I’m imagining new ideas for book number three, Gotta
Have It All, so I can take it from its genesis to its exodus. Can’t wait to
embark on that ride!

Saturday, June 6, 2015

I’ll begin today’s dialog class with a reminder to keep it visual. In all
fiction writing you’re setting a scene.Whenever conversation takes place, there’s more going on than just the
words

In last week’s dialog
example (don’t make me repeat myself – it’s right there below this post) I think
plainly stating that Eve was laughing at Adam has a lot more impact than
slipping in the word “chortled,” and letting us see what’s happening between
them involves us in the conversation so much better than the one-word clue that
Adam whined. If you paint a word picture,
your reader will be able to accurately guess when the dialog is loud or soft,
friendly or not. In the revised example,
I think you got the idea that Eve snapped at Adam when she said, “not anymore.” Even if you didn’t, you probably understood
the tone well enough.

I think the reason
“said” substitutes are pet peeves for so many editors is that it’s the easiest
way to express some thoughts, and nobody likes a lazy writer. They want to know you’ve really thought about
what you want to say and have searched for the best way to say it. So go ahead and use the old reliable word,
“said” along with other, equally neutral words like “replied” or “asked” and
find better ways of letting us know that your character smiled, hissed or
sputtered.

Now even the use of
“said” won’t save you from another dialog evil.
Consider this:

Tommy was startled when he opened the door and mike walked in.

“What are you doing here?” Tommy asked nervously.

“I’m looking for you,” Mike said angrily. “Where have you been all day?”

“I had to leave,” Tommy said softly. “The thing in the closet
sent me away.”

“Thing in the closet?” Mike said fiercely. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. I’m going in there and toss everything out.”

“No, no,” Tommy said, frantically. “If you go in there it will
kill you.”

Hopefully you noticed
and maybe even got a little uncomfortable with the adverbs in this
passage. Adverbs are a lazy way to try
to make dialog more expressive. They are
almost always unnecessary if the dialog is well written. Personally, I don’t think you ever need to
use an adverb in your writing again in life. For the purposes of dialog they’re
easy to do without. Just think of
another way to express the same thoughts and feelings.

About Me

I am the author of 5 detective novels in the Hannibal Jones series - Blood and Bone, Collateral Damage, The Troubleshooter, Damaged Goods and Russian Roulette, plus 4 action adventure novels, The Payback Assignment, The Orion Assignment, The Piranha Assignment and the Ice Woman Assignment. I'm active in several local writers’ organizations - a past president of the Maryland Writers Association and past vice-president of the Virginia Writers Club. By day I handle media relations for the Defense Department. For more than a decade the American Forces Network carried my radio and television news reports. I've settled in Upper Marlboro, Maryland and launched Intrigue Publishing.